On Wednesday this week, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was measured at at 415 parts per million (ppm). The level is the highest in human history, and is growing each year.
Amid all the focus on emissions reduction, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says it will not be enough to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. The world must actively remove historical CO₂ already in the atmosphere - a process often described as “negative emissions”.
CO₂ removal can be done in two ways. The first is by enhancing carbon storage in natural ecosystems, such as planting more forests or storing more carbon in soil. The second is by using direct air capture (DAC) technology that strips CO₂ from the ambient air, then either stores it underground or turns it into products.
Steering Scotland’s pathway to net zero Published:
Roadmap to world-leading climate change targets published.
More than 100 new policies and proposals to support Scotland’s green recovery and help deliver a just transition to net zero have been launched.
They form part of the Climate Change Plan 2018 – 2032, which has been updated to reflect the world’s most ambitious framework of climate targets as enshrined in Scotland’s Climate Change Act 2019.
The Plan, which also increases the ambition of more than 40 other policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors, includes:
the launch of a £180 million Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF), that, over the next 5 years, will support the development of Scottish hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) industries, and support the development of Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs)